YouTube video sermon

1 Peter 2:9-10

Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to 1 Peter 2. In recent months and years, you’ve probably heard a lot of conversation about and been involved in much discussion (yourself) around the topic of identity.

For example, as a Church, last month, we took two half-days and considered the topic by going through Who Am I – a study of the Scriptures on everything from gender, sexuality, artificial intelligence, race, justice, genomics, and the Metaverse. And who hasn’t found themselves deeply saddened by the realization that more and more men and women and boys and girls are taking steps to transition from one gender to another – often times taking puberty blockers and hormone treatments, and even undergoing irreversible physical surgery. It’s heartbreaking, and yet laughable at the same time, that our most recent associate justice to the Supreme Court can’t provide an answer to the question: “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?”

I offer all of those examples to say this: we’re living in a world and a culture that’s overwhelmingly confused about its identity.

Now, before we read our text for this morning, I want to pause and say that today’s sermon is not about beating up on or speaking down to those who are confused about their identity. There’s enough of that going on. But it’s also not a “feel good affirmation” that how you view these things doesn’t ultimately matter. In fact, today’s message isn’t directed to those outside the church at all. It’s directed to us – those of us that identify as Christians, those of us that call ourselves the Church. After all, that’s who Peter is writing to.

It’s not often that we find such clear answers to basic questions like: “Who am I?” “How did I get this identity?” and “Why am I here?” all in one place. But we do here. So, let’s look at these two small verses in 1 Peter 2:9-10.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

“Father, with our Bibles open before us, we humbly pray that the Spirit of God will be our teacher – illuminating the printed page to us, and speaking into our lives beyond the voice of a mere man – so that we might hear from You, the Living God. For we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Who am I? Who are you? How did we get our identity, as Christians? What are we here for? These aren’t the kinds of questions that dogs or turtles or fish or squirrels or birds or dolphins or chimpanzees ever lose one night’s sleep over. (At least, insofar as we’re aware.) Only humans ask these questions. Again, keep in mind that Peter is identifying Christians. This is who you are if you’re a Christian. This is how you got your identity as a Christian. This is what you’re here for as a Christian.

Who Am I?

First, Peter gives five (5) ways of describing your identity, answering the question of who you are.

You Are a Chosen Race (vs. 9) “You are a chosen race.”

I know that this is a corporate identity. He’s talking about the church – the true Israel. But the implication is also individual. This group of people, this race is not racial. The chosen race is not black or white or red or yellow or brown. The chosen race is a new people from all the peoples – all the colors and cultures – who are now aliens and strangers in the world. Look at verse 11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers . . .”

What gives us our identity is not color or culture, but our being chosen. Christians are not the white race. Nor are Christians the black race. Christians are the chosen race. We’re the black chosen and the white chosen and the yellow chosen and the red chosen. We’ve been chosen (by God) from all the races – one at a time, not on the basis of belonging to any group. That’s why this amazing phrase (“You are a chosen race”) is so crucial. You and I, we’re part of a race of people – individuals – who were chosen from ALL races.

So, our first identity is that we’re chosen. God chose you. Not because of your race, or your good looks, or your intelligence, or your achievements, or any other qualification, but simply because God chose you. Who are you? You’re chosen. Why? I don’t know. It was nothing in you that was better than other humans. You didn’t earn it, or merit it, or meet any conditions to get it. It happened before you were born. Thus, you stand in awe of it. You tremble with joy at it. You bow and accept it, and you long to be faithful to its purpose. You are chosen.

You Are Pitied (vs. 10b) “ . . . you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

I choose the word “pitied” because the word for “mercy” in Greek is a verb and the closest word we have in English for “being mercied” is “pitied.” It’s not a bad translation. When God chose us, He then saw us in our sin and guilt and condemnation and He pitied us. We’re not just chosen. We’re pitied. We’re not just the objects of God’s choice. We’re also the objects of His mercy.

I’m chosen and I’m pitied. Or, you could say I’m “graced.” Or, I’m “loved.” God didn’t just choose you and stand aloof. He chose you and then drew near in mercy to help you and save you. Your identity is fundamentally this: I have been shown mercy. We’re “mercied” people. We get our identity not first from our actions, but from being acted upon by God in/with pity.

You Are God’s Possession (vs. 9) “You are . . . a people for God’s own possession.” (vs. 10a) “You once were not a people, but now you are the people of God.”

You are chosen by God. You are pitied by God. And the effect of that pity, that mercy is that God takes you to be His own possession. Now, God owns everything. So, in one sense everyone is God’s possession. So, this must mean something special. And, of course, it does. You’re God’s inheritance. You’re the ones He aims to spend eternity with. When God says (in 2 Corinthians 6:16), “I will be their God and they will be My people [my possession],” what He means is that “I will dwell in them and walk among them.”

You’re chosen. You’re pitied. You’re God’s possession – the ones He will walk among and reveal Himself to in a personal way: forever.

You Are Holy (vs. 9) “You are a . . . holy nation.”

You’ve been chosen and pitied and possessed by God; and therefore, you’re not merely part of the world anymore. You’re set apart for God. You exist for God. And since God is holy, you’re holy. That’s what 1 Peter 1:15-16 said, remember? “[B]ut as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”

We share His character, because He chose us, pitied us, possessed us. We’re holy. If you act in an unholy way, then you act out of character. You contradict your essence as a Christian, for your identity is holiness to the Lord. You are holy.

And finally,

You Are a Royal Priest (vs. 9) “You are a . . . royal priesthood.”

You are chosen by God and pitied by God and possessed by God and holy like God, and finally, royal priests to God. The first thing to understand about this royal priesthood concept is that you and I have immediate access to God. We don’t need another human priest as a mediator. That’s what 1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” You have direct access to God, through Jesus. And, second, you have an exalted, active role in God’s presence. You’re not chosen, pitied, possessed, and holy just to fritter away your time doing nothing. You’re called to minister in the presence of God (now). All your life is priestly service. We’re never out of God’s presence. We’re never in a neutral zone. We’re always in the court of the temple. And our lives are either a spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1–2), or it is out of character.

So, that’s the answer to “Who Am I?” And you can see that your identity leads directly to the question, “Why Am I Here?” You’re chosen, pitied, possessed, and holy – all for a purpose – to minister as priests. And the heart of that ministry is described for us very clearly, by Peter. But before we answer the question “Why Am I Here?”, let’s pause just a moment and answer the middle question: “How Did I Get This Identity?”

How Did I Get This Identity?

The answer is almost too obvious. We got our identity from God. In fact, our identity is completely bound up in our relation to God. We’re chosen by GOD. We’re pitied by GOD. We’re possessed by GOD. We’re set apart as holy by GOD. We’re invested as royal priests to GOD.

Listen to what Peter says at the end of verse 9. He refers to God like this: “Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The light we live in is the light of our being chosen and pitied and possessed and holy and priestly. And the way we got there is that God has called us. He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

So, the answer to the question: “How Did We Get This Identity?” is that God gave it to us. He gave it to us by virtue of His calling us, His choosing us. It’s all a work of God.

Let’s consider the final question: “Why Am I Here?”

Why Am I Here?

What we saw was that our identity led directly to our destiny: we are chosen, pitied, possessed, and holy all for the sake of being a royal priesthood. But Peter is more specific when he tells us the precise reason for our existence. He says, in the second part of verse 9, that we exist for this reason: “that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” This is the full-time destiny of a royal priest – to make the glories of the King known.

Now, I need to pause here and help us make a very clear distinction about something. There are folks in our world that would take this verse (vs. 9) “that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” and say that the “darkness” that God called us out of is the “darkness of ignorance,” or the “darkness of being unaware,” as in enlightenment. And the reason that they interpret “darkness” that way is because they want to affirm behaviors and lifestyles that are inconsistent with what it means to be holy.

There’s a lot of discussion in our day of self-concept or self-identity. How do we view ourselves? It’s an important question. And what I hope you’re hearing this morning is that the specifically biblical angle on this question is that Christian selfhood is not defined in terms of who we are in and of ourselves. It’s defined in terms of what God does to us and the relationship He creates with us and the destiny He appoints for us. In other words, as a Christian, you cannot talk about your identity without talking about the action of God on you, the relationship of God with you, and the purpose of God for you. The biblical understanding of human self-identity is radically God-centered.

Who am I? Who are you? You are a God-chosen one, a God-pitied one, a God-possessed one, a God-sanctified one. The very language of our identity in this text necessitates that God be included as the One who acts. Our identity is not an end in itself. Our identity is for the sake of priestly service, which Peter defines as proclaiming the excellencies of the One who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. And that “darkness” is the darkness of sin: sinful thoughts, sinful attitudes, sinful behaviors – anything outside the holiness and purity of God Himself.

Stated another way, God made us who we are so that we might proclaim the excellency of His freedom in choosing us, the excellency of His grace in pitying us, the excellencies of His authority and power in possessing us, and the excellencies of His worth and purity in making us holy. God made us who we are so we could make known who He is.

Therefore, being a Christian and making the greatness of God known are almost identical. We can do it in church services with preaching and singing and praying and reading. We can do it in our small groups as we tell each other what God has been for us, or what we need Him to be for us. We can do it at work as we tell people what we love about God and why we think He’s great. And we can do it in a thousand different ways of love that suit our situation and personality.

Let me close with this wonderful story of how Doug Nichols, the International Director of Action International Ministries, made the excellencies of God known in a tuberculosis sanitarium in India in 1967. Though he was not living on much more money than the people from India, they thought that because he was an American, he had to be rich. Doug said, “They didn’t know that I was just as broke as they were.”

When he was hospitalized, Doug unsuccessfully tried to share the Gospel of Jesus with the patients. When he offered them tracts of the gospel of John, they politely refused. It was obvious they wanted nothing to do with him or his God. Doug grew discouraged.

Often, at night, Doug was awakened by the sound of coughing from himself as well as other patients. But that’s what you come to expect in the TB ward of a sanitarium? Unable to sleep because of his coughing, early one morning Doug noticed an old man trying to sit on the edge of the bed. But because of his weakness, the old man would fall back. Exhausted, the old man finally lay still and cried. Early the next morning the same scene repeated itself. Then, later in the morning, the smell that began to permeate the room revealed the obvious. The old man had been trying to get up and go to the restroom.

Doug said, “The nurses were very agitated and angry because they had to clean up the mess. One of the nurses even slapped him in anger. The man was completely embarrassed and curled up into a ball and wept.” The next morning, Doug noticed the old man was again trying to generate enough strength to get himself out of bed.

This time, Doug got out of bed, went over to where the old man was, put one arm under his head and neck, the other under his legs, and gently carried him to the restroom – which was nothing more than a hole in the floor. When he had finished, Doug carried him back to his bed. The old man, speaking in a language that Doug did not understand, thanked him profusely, and then kissed him on the cheek.

Eventually, Doug went back to sleep. In the morning, he awakened to a hot cup of tea served by another patient who spoke no English. After the patient served the tea, he made motions indicating that he wanted one of Doug’s tracts. Doug said, “All throughout the day, people came to me asking for Gospel tracts. This included the nurses, hospital interns, the doctors, until everyone in the hospital had a tract, booklet, or gospel of John.”

“Over the next few days,” he adds, “several told me they trusted Christ as Savior as a result of reading the Good News! I simply took an old man to the bathroom. Anyone could have done that.”

In a world that doesn’t know up from down, left from right, good and bad, what makes a man versus what makes a woman, let’s be clear about what it means to be a Christian. We’re chosen. We’re the recipients of great mercy. We’re God’s supreme possession. We’re a holy nation, and a royal priesthood – with the purpose of proclaiming God’s excellencies for calling us out of our sin and into His light.

A. W. Tozer once said, “A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible and knows that which passes all knowledge.”

And a generation earlier, Charles Spurgeon said, “Be not afraid to possess this peculiar identity, for though it is misunderstood on earth, it is well understood in heaven.”

“Our Father and our God, we all live in a culturally confused and chaotic world. Some of us send our children to school here. Some of us get on elevators and work in offices with folks that are confused. We play golf and work out and enjoy a game of cards and partake in all manner of recreation and social interaction with friends and neighbors, and perhaps even family members, that aren’t sure of who they are and why they’re here. Lord, I pray that we – Your chosen people, Your holy nation, Your royal priesthood – would have a firm understanding of who we are and, perhaps more importantly, whose we are. May this identity not lead us to arrogance or bravado, but may it lead us to proclaim Your glorious excellencies in redeeming us from sin and its deadly consequences to the light of Your holiness and its eternal goodness. It’s in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit that we offer this prayer. Amen.”